WASHINGTON (Washington Insider Magazine) – The FBI has now listed Ruja Ignatova, the so-called Cryptoqueen, as one of its most wanted fugitives.
After allegedly scamming investors of over $4 billion through OneCoin, a cryptocurrency business she assisted in founding in 2014, the FBI put Ignatova to its list of ten Most Wanted Fugitives.
The measure was taken after Ignatova, 42, was placed on Europol’s most-wanted list early this year, according to ABC NEWS.
Ignatova, a lawyer from Bulgaria, claimed to have created a cryptocurrency that could compete with Bitcoin. According to the FBI, she and others reportedly used a multi-level marketing scheme to advertise OneCoin while seeking investments.
The FBI asserted that OneCoin allegedly had a private blockchain instead of the public and verifiable blockchain which other virtual currencies had, and that the firm decided the price of OneCoin instead of the market demand.
Ignatova allegedly used the hype around cryptocurrencies to eventually convince investors to transfer her billions of dollars before evading arrest in 2017 when a federal arrest warrant was issued against her.
Investigators think Ignatova may have received information that she was being looked into by American and foreign agencies. She flew from Bulgaria, to Greece, on October 25, 2017, and the FBI claims that she hasn’t been seen since.
Ignatova was charged with one charge of conspiracy to commit securities fraud, securities fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and wire fraud in February 2018.
According to the FBI, who is giving a reward of up to $100,000 for intelligence leading to Ignatova’s capture, she is the only woman on the agency’s list of the 10 most wanted fugitives and the eleventh overall in its 72-year existence. The FBI claimed she may have undergone plastic surgery to change her look and that she was known to travel around Eastern Europe and the Middle East.
In relation to OneCoin, a number of other people have also been prosecuted, including Ignatova’s brother Konstantin Ignatov, who took over the company after she vanished from view. He was detained in March 2019 on suspicion of conspiring to commit wire fraud because of his involvement in the “international pyramid scheme,” according to federal authorities. He admitted guilt to several offenses, and now he is awaiting sentence.
Attorney Mark Scott is awaiting sentence after being found guilty in 2019 of helping the OneCoin leadership launder $400 million in fraud earnings.
Another OneCoin co-founder Karl Sebastian Greenwood is awaiting sentencing on fraud-related charges.
